| Popis: |
This is a report on a National Cooperative study of Radiotherapy for inoperable patients with cancer of the prostate: 372 patients with adenocarcinoma of the prostate, stage C, received radiotherapy from 1967 to 1973, according to a very strict protocol. With minor variations, all patients received the same total dose: 7000 cGy in 47 days or 7500 cGy in 54 days. Mild episodes of hematuria and rectal bleeding were observed in a number of patients: urethral and rectal strictures also resulted in a few cases, but were no life-threatening complications. A total of 177 patients (47%) died from prostatic cancer, mostly bony metastases that may have been present when the patients were first seen; death from prostatic cancer decreased as the years went by. Only 4 patients (1%) were lost to follow-up, only one before ten years, and none had evidence of cancer when last seen. However, 167 (44%) of the 372 patients lived for various periods of times and died without ostensible evidence of prostatic cancer. In addition 24 were still living after 20 years. Thus, more than half of these elderly inoperable patients treated by radiotherapy lived to die of something else. |
